State v. Liggins

• Citation: 557 N.W.2d 263
• Decision Date: 18 December 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-1422,95-1422
• Parties: STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Stanley Carter LIGGINS, Appellant.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa

Page 263

557 N.W.2d 263

STATE of Iowa, Appellee, v. Stanley Carter LIGGINS, Appellant.

No. 95-1422.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

Dec. 18, 1996.

Kent A. Simmons, Davenport, for appellant.

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Richard J. Bennett, Assistant Attorney General, William E. Davis, County Attorney, and Julie Walton, Assistant County Attorney, for appellee.

Considered by HARRIS, P.J., and CARTER, NEUMAN, SNELL, and ANDREASEN, JJ.

ANDREASEN, Justice.

Defendant Stanley Liggins was charged and convicted of first-degree murder. On appeal, Liggins claims that the State failed to establish territorial jurisdiction for the murder charge, the district court erred in its jury instructions, the court erred in admitting a witness's deposition at trial, and there was insufficient evidence to support his conviction. We affirm.

I. Background Facts and Proceedings.

This appeal is from Liggins' second trial on the charges surrounding the death of a nine-year-old girl. We stated the background facts in Liggins' prior appeal:

The deceased body of Jennifer Lewis was found on an elementary school lot in Davenport, Scott County, Iowa at approximately 9:00 p.m. on September 17, 1990. Her body had been burned. Upon further medical examination it was determined that death was caused by manual strangulation, that she had been sexually abused prior to her death, and that she was not alive at the time her body was burned. Jennifer, who lived with her mother Sherry Glenn and her stepfather Joseph Glenn in Rock Island, Illinois, had last been seen at approximately 6:30 p.m. purchasing gum at Mac's Liquor Store in Rock Island, Illinois. Jennifer's death occurred four days before her tenth birthday.

State v. Liggins, 524 N.W.2d 181, 183 (Iowa 1994) [hereinafter Liggins I ].

On July 27, 1992, a trial information was filed in Scott County, Iowa, charging Liggins with first-degree murder, willful injury, first-degree sexual abuse, and first-degree kidnapping. He entered not guilty pleas. Liggins was convicted on all counts in 1993.

Liggins appealed, and, in Liggins I, we reversed his convictions. Specifically, we reversed his willful injury, sexual abuse, and kidnapping convictions because there was insufficient evidence to prove that those offenses were committed in Iowa. Id. at 186. We also concluded there was substantial evidence to overcome Liggins' motion for a judgment of acquittal on the murder charge. Id. at 188. However, we reversed Liggins' conviction for first-degree murder and remanded for retrial, based upon the improper admission of evidence of Liggins' involvement in drug trafficking. Id. at 188-89.

In July 1995, Liggins was tried again for first-degree murder under the alternative theories of premeditated murder and felony murder. Prior to trial, Liggins filed a motion for adjudication of law points, arguing that the State could not pursue a felony-murder theory because of our decision in Liggins I. The district court overruled the motion, and evidence of the underlying felonies was admitted. The jury returned a guilty verdict, and Liggins was sentenced to life imprisonment. He filed timely notice of appeal.

On appeal, Liggins claims: (1) the State failed to establish territorial jurisdiction for the murder charge; (2) the district court erred in its jury instructions; (3) the district court erred in admitting a witness's deposition at trial; and (4) there was insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the person who killed Jennifer Lewis. Our scope of review is for the correction of errors at law. Iowa R.App. P. 4. Our review of the constitutional claims is de novo. State v. White, 545 N.W.2d 552, 554 (Iowa 1996).

II. Territorial Jurisdiction.

Liggins' first claim is that the State did not produce sufficient evidence of territorial jurisdiction to corroborate the permissible inference that Jennifer died in Iowa, and that the district court's failure to enter a judgment of acquittal deprived Liggins of his fundamental right to due process. We do not agree.

Under the theory of territorial jurisdiction, jurisdiction to subject an accused to criminal prosecution rests in the courts of the state in which the crime was committed. Liggins I, 524 N.W.2d at 184. Territorial jurisdiction is an essential element of a crime, and the State is required to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 184-85. Iowa Code section 803.1(2) (1993) expands on the theory of criminal territorial jurisdiction and creates a rebuttable presumption of state jurisdiction. The statute provides:

An offense may be committed partly within this state if conduct which is an element of the offense, or a result which constitutes an element of the offense, occurs within this state. If the body of a murder victim is found within the state, the death is presumed to have occurred within the state.

Iowa Code § 803.1(2) (emphasis added).

At Liggins' retrial, the district court instructed the jury on the statutory presumption. In its instruction, the court told the jurors "If you find that Jennifer Lewis' body was found within the State of Iowa, you are allowed, but not required, to conclude that the death of Jennifer Lewis occurred within the State of Iowa."

This instruction is virtually identical to the jury instruction given in Liggins' first trial, in which he also challenged Iowa's territorial jurisdiction. In Liggins I, we concluded:

In a homicide, if the body is discovered and it is not known where the death occurred, the rebuttable presumption or inference is necessary. It is rational to infer from proof of the location of the body that the homicide was committed within the state in which the body was found.... [W]e conclude there was sufficient evidence to support a finding that Iowa had territorial jurisdiction to prosecute Liggins on the murder charge. ...

Liggins I, 524 N.W.2d at 185 (emphasis added).

Jennifer's body was found in Davenport, Iowa. Further, the evidence in the record does not conclusively establish if she was killed in Iowa or Illinois. We conclude that there was sufficient evidence to establish Iowa's territorial jurisdiction on the murder charge and that Liggins did not rebut the statutory presumption.

III. Jury Instructions.

Next, Liggins argues that there were errors in the district court's jury instructions. He claims that the district court erred in (1) submitting Instruction No. 23 on participation in a public offense, and (2) submitting other instructions which allowed the jury to consider Liggins' guilt of first-degree murder on an alternative theory of felony murder.

We review jury instructions to decide if they are correct statements of the law and are supported by substantial evidence. Collister v. City of Council Bluffs, 534 N.W.2d 453, 454 (Iowa 1995). The district court has a duty to instruct fully and fairly on the law regarding all issues raised by the evidence. Iowa R.Crim. P. 18(5)(f); State v. Stallings, 541 N.W.2d 855, 857 (Iowa 1995). The court may phrase the instructions in its own words as long as the instructions given fully and fairly advise the jury of the issues it is to decide and the law which is applicable. Stallings, 541 N.W.2d at 857. When a single instruction is challenged, it will be judged in context with other instructions relating to the criminal charge, not in isolation. Id.

A. Jury Instruction No. 23.

At Liggins' retrial, the district court submitted the following instruction to the jury:

A person participates in an offense beginning with the first act done toward the commission of the offense and ending when a person has been arrested or has escaped from pursuers.

Liggins claims this instruction caused the jury to misunderstand the proof necessary for the essential element of jurisdiction, abrogating the requirement of finding jurisdiction by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In other words, Liggins argues that the instruction told the jury that it did not need to determine where Jennifer's death occurred. We find no error in the submission of the instruction.

Instruction No. 23 is a correct statement of Iowa law. It is based on Iowa Code section 702.13, which defines "participating in a public offense," and is nearly identical to Iowa Criminal Jury Instruction 200.6 (1988). A conviction for first-degree murder premised on felony murder requires a finding that a defendant was "participating" in a forcible felony. Iowa Code § 707.2(2); Conner v. State, 362 N.W.2d 449, 455 (Iowa 1985). Therefore, it is important to define "participation." The definition contained in Instruction No. 23 was used to define the concept of "participating in a forcible felony" for purposes of the felony-murder rule. In fact, the uniform instruction for felony murder, Iowa Criminal Jury Instruction 700.2, recommends using Iowa Criminal Jury Instruction 200.6, which cites Iowa Code section 702.13 as its authority, to define "participation."

Contrary to Liggins' argument, the statutory definition in Iowa Code section 702.13 does not apply solely to joint criminal conduct. In State v. Johnson, 291 N.W.2d 6 (Iowa 1980), we held that the state legislature did not intend "participation" to mean "joint conduct." Johnson, 291 N.W.2d at 9. Also, no portion of Instruction No. 23 indicates that the jury was supposed to use it to decide the issue of jurisdiction instead of applying it solely to the issue of felony murder.

We conclude that, because Liggins was tried under the theory of felony murder, the district court did not err in submitting Instruction No. 23, which merely defined the concept of participation in a felony.

B. Instructions Involving Felony Murder.

Liggins next argues that the district court erred in its instructions concerning the willful injury, sexual abuse, and kidnapping charges. Specifically, he contends the instructions were in violation of our holding in Liggins I that none of the elements of the forcible felonies could be proven to have occurred in Iowa....